The Truth Is
by daysandweeks
Summary: Ron and Hermione in their 7th year pretty much have an all out confession. Oneshot! Written preDH


**A/N: I know. I don't own the characters. Call that a disclaimer. Hugs. Song lyrics are credited to Coldplay-The Scientist.**

"BLOODY HELL, HERMIONE!" were the words that rang through the head common room. It was a cold day towards the end of December, and Christmas vacation was just about over. Surprisingly, both heads, Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger, hadn't gone home for the vacation, both for their own separate reasons.

"Oh, honestly, what's your problem now?" Hermione growled, turning back to face him. She had been heading to her dormitory after exchanging a few angered words but now he was speaking again. It had gone along the lines of _Why did you go with him to that party?_ And had ended with _You're just afraid to tell people how you feel, Ronald Weasley!_

"YOU!" he yelled back, his face turning red and blotchy. Anger rose in both their chests, although different things were playing in their heads. Inside, Ron was about to completely let loose and tell her she was wrong for a change, odd as it sounded. Hermione, on the other hand, was angry for little reason at all. Most of her was in an odd void between hurt and pity. His ears were maroon now, and she wished that for once she wasn't the reason for such things. "What do you mean I'm afraid to tell people how I feel? Sure I might not be fantastic at such things but, by my regard, I've been giving you hints since…since fourth year!"

Hermione smirked and shook her head, her arms wrapping around her chest. "Fourth year?" she said, rolling her eyes. "What do you mean?"

"Well why else wouldn't I like Viktor Krum? Contest reasons aside, of course…" He paused, and took a deep breath. "For Merlin's sake, I was practically enamored with him the summer before!"

"You certainly made me confused_ last_ year!" Hermione retorted, dodging the subject and stopping the calm yet sarcastic pace they had been at. She was touching a sore subject now.

Ron rolled his eyes and his face, which had been turning back to its normal white, started to flush again. "Merlin, Hermione, I thought we were over that already!" They hadn't mentioned it since last year, except for fleeting moments in September, but since then they had relaxed.

"Over? You break my heart and suddenly it's no big deal?"

The retort had been cold and left both of them a bit frostbitten. It took Ron a while to even consider a comeback, and when he did, it was quiet, and calm, and collected. "Okay. I screwed up. But I've given you my score of hints for almost four years now. What about you?"

Hermione stood there, choking on the next thing to say. The words were caught in her throat but wouldn't come out. They had been planned there for months, not to be said in a situation like this. She had daydreamed to say them on a chilly night back in November, sitting before the fire on the couch in the head common room. Perhaps things would be good between them then, and perhaps he would hold her in his arms before she said it, but that would have been back in November, and no such thing had happened.

"I'm sorry," Hermione choked back. "I'm sorry…of course I'm sorry…" Her head was bowed with her frizzy hair snaking in front of it, although by the tone of her voice Ron could tell that she was crying a little. "It's just…I was ready last year…I was ready to stop fighting and get a long and let you know how I felt…"

"And you _are_ right there, I totally ruined it." Hermione couldn't see Ron's face, either, but by the quiet way he said it she knew things were calming down. His face was probably still a bit pink from all the yelling and his ears still a little bit red…and he probably looked almost ironically handsome. But she didn't want to look up just incase.

After a bit of silence, Hermione answered in an incredibly quiet whisper, "We both did…" Soon she felt a pair of hands on her shoulders. They stayed there for a second, not hovering lightly but loosely pressing on her, before pulling her in. She buried her face in her hands and leaned against his chest as he awkwardly tried to find where to hold her right. After a while, his hands found the small of her back, and Hermione looked up. "We both did…for heaven's sake let's just get over it."

"I was just jealous, I was being stupid," Ron answered her. "And now I'm making you cry and I feel like such a jerk..."

Hermione smirked and put her arms on his back before pulling herself closer and lightly laughing, "You're not a jerk."

"Am too," Ron answered.

Hermione pulled away and looked back up at him. Her eyes weren't exactly dancing this time, as Ron had noticed them doing earlier when she smirked at him. "You're not!"

"I am…"

He had been cut short a word but he wasn't necessarily upset about it, nor was she. Hermione stood on her tiptoes, leaning onto him for leverage as she kissed him lightly. After a moment of shock and surprise from the both of them, Ron deepened the kiss, and helped her to the couch so she didn't have to struggle with the height issue.

Thoughts ran through Ron's mind, mostly, more than Hermione's, which was a change. _She did it just to shut me up. No, never mind, I'm dreaming. Wait…even worse…she didn't do it to shut me up, she wanted to do it, but she'll tell everyone the opposite once they find out…Or maybe they won't find out. That would be good. Wait, no…that would be…_

She knew he was distracted by the way he simply sat there and accepted things. After a second or two more, Hermione broke off and murmured, "As ironic as this sounds…stop thinking."

"But…but…"

"But you're a jerk?"

"I AM NOT!"

Hermione smiled and cocked her head to the side. "What were you thinking about?" A wave came down her face and soon it appeared distraught. "You're not still sore over the whole mess, are you?"

"No…but…" His ears turned scarlet in a flash. He watched her shake her head and said, "Well this happened so quick…and rushing and…"

_Yes. Six…almost seven years in the making and a stupid fling with Lavender wasn't rushing into things?_ Hermione shook her head and flung her hands up into the air before standing up and angrily facing him. "What do you mean _rushing_?"

_Great one, Weasley…_ Ron thought to himself. _What are you going to say to get yourself out of this one?_ The answer took a while to come to him, but after a good minute or two of silence and an indignant Hermione who was once more about to turn around and go to her bedroom, it came to him. _Just tell her the truth._

"The truth is…" The truth is hard to get out, that's what the truth is. Ron took a gulp and wrung his hands together as he sat forward, inclined towards her. His vision switched towards their shoes. They were very near to each other-his large sneaker and her neat buckled flat. He wished to inch it forward, for any form of contact would be the slightest bit satisfying. "The truth is…" He could feel his ears turning red with every millisecond of her glaring down at him and him staring at their four feet, facing each other in an almost perfectly angled fashion, just millimeters apart. He thought over every moment he'd had with Hermione. There had been terrible fights and the most awkward moments ever. He had hated her from the start, it seemed, but after a few months it turned to a slight accepting, and after a year or so to friendship…a broken friendship, of course, but still a friendship…and after that, those feelings of friendship eventually turned into feelings of like…utter genuine respect and like.

"Don't get me wrong," Ron started as a sudden wave of courage came to him and he stood up to face her, standing a good half foot taller. "I didn't like you at first. I thought you were bossy and snobby and just…brilliant in a scary way. I didn't want anything to do with you. But after a while…I grew to respect you. You were still a…an intelligent, teacher's pet, goody-two-shoes…well, not in Snape's case…" He shuddered at the name at the memory of what their old professor had done last year. Hermione simply put her head down to look at her folded arms. "But I respected you. You had morals. You weren't too egotistical. That respect turned to friendship, of course, and although it wasn't the soundest relationship, that turned to feelings of more than friendship, as you know. There were times starting my fourth year when I would feel that perhaps I had fallen in love with you, but then I'd hate you, and then I'd care for you more, and I'd realize that the previous feeling wasn't love at all.

"Sixth year I totally fell for you, and we all know that I screwed that up terribly. But that's beside the point. _The truth is_, Hermione, is that it's taken _almost seven long years_ to get to this point, and I…"

Suddenly Hermione embraced him, not bothering to tiptoe up to wrap her arms around his shoulders, but just hugging him around the waist as he did so to her neck area. "You wanted it to be perfect," she whispered into his chest, leaning her forehead against it.

"No," Ron said, pulling away a bit from her, so that they were looking at each other now, although still embraced. "I don't want it to be perfect. It's not going to be. Come on, we're talking about you and me here. Nothing's easy with us." They both chuckled before he continued. "I want it to be worth it."

And with that he leaned down and kissed her. And they kissed like two people who had waited for ages, but were going to take it at just the same pace as they always did.

Step by step and rolling with the punches.

_Nobody said it was easy  
Aww It's such a shame for us to part  
Nobody said it was easy  
No one ever said it would be so hard  
I'm goin' back to the start_


End file.
